IT, Islam, Social, My life

Daniel Sahuleka: You Make my World So Colourful

I dedicated this article to my beloved wife and kids. Ayah loves you all. Greatest Hug. A Biography of one of the greatest Indonesian musician.

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Daniel Sahuleka Jazz Indonesia Singer

Biography of Daniel Sahuleka

As a young boy Daniel was always playing his guitar and was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Motown and jazz musicians like Django Reinhardt.

In 1977 Daniel started composing his first records, with his debut-single ‘You make my world so colourful’ as a result. The single was followed by his LP’s Sahuleka 1 and Sahuleka 2, with well provided pop music that established Daniel Sahuleka with a huge public in both Europe and Indonesia, where he still has huge success.

The LP Sunbeam was released in 1981 in Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Japan, from which the single Wake Up became an enormous success. Daniel was awarded with an Edison, Holland’s most acknowledged music award, for best album in 1982.

In the early eighties, after momentous success and touring with the ‘Daniel Sahuleka Band’ in Europe, performing almost daily and following his solo success in Asia, Daniel withdrew from the music scene.

The Daniel Sahuleka Band

Without the pressure from the record companies, Daniel released his CD The Loner in 1990 followed by the live-album I Adore You in 1993. I Adore You became a huge hit in Asia, as a result Daniel was invited to come to Indonesia and got a lot of publicity by newspapers, magazines and broadcasting media. He performed in Jakarta, Banding, Yogyakarta and Semarang.

In 1995 Daniel returned to Indonesia where he was awarded an honorary doctors degree on the campus of the Medical Faculty in Yogyakarta. The students loved him and cheered: ‘You have not only sung for us, you gave us a lecture Daniel!’

The multiple visits to his birth country and further travels trough Asia have left its tracks. His music brought him into all sorts of social circles and chaotic circumstances and situations. Coming home in Holland Daniel started composing again and he recorded After The Jetlag, which is a reflection of some of the chaotic experiences during his travels.

A lot of fans asked Daniel to record an acoustic album with only his voice and a guitar, it resulted in the recording of Colorfool in 2003. While you are listening to this beautiful album and close your eyes, you are taken away to the field of harmony, piece and love.

In the DVD era Daniel was doing a concert at ‘Theater De Regentes’ in The Hague. This special event was filmed by movie director Mirco Cocco and the audio was recorded by Daniel’s sons Jaim and Joel Sahuleka. The DVD If I Didn’t is recorded in 2006 and is released in Europe and Asia.

Daniel was invited to come back to Indonesia again, he played two nights for an outrageous audience at JavaJazz Jakarta 2006. They sang along with his evergreens, like Don’t sleep away the night, I Adore You and You make my world so colourful. It was not surprising that so many young people attended the concerts, as their parents kept listening to Daniel’s music and their children became fans too. Now that youngsters of the third generation are becoming fans too, we can be sure that the ‘abadi’ (forever) songs will be forever and ever.

At the end of the second performance at JavaJazz Daniel was honoured by Jakarta’s Governor Mr. Sutijoso. He was invited a couple of days later by Mr. Sutijoso (Bang Yos) to come to his residence and there he officially told Daniel that he had become ‘The Citizen of Honour of Jakarta for singing so beautiful on this JJF Festival, his songs of peace and harmony’. The association of musicians, composers and arrangers from Indonesia rewarded Daniel with the highest music award for his music theme ‘Coming from and travelling to Indonesia’.

In May 2007 Daniel returned to Jakarta for concerts and he released his DVD in Indonesia, Singapore and the Benelux. In Jakarta he was invited in big television shows like Empat Mata, Extravaganza and Ciriwis (Trans 7 TV).

Again on invitation of a Jazz Pop organization Daniel returned in November 2008 to the big Asian metropole Jakarta and gave his fans on an ‘Under the Skyline Acoustic Concert’ and Metro TV made a one hour profile of Daniel meeting all his friends which was broadcasted on December 25th (Christmas).

This year Daniel is writing a book about his experiences around the world and it will be published in Asia and Europe. The next CD release is in September of this year.